1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to communications between multiple devices, and more particularly to using an ad hoc peer-to-peer distributed message bus that uses connections established through wireless or wired protocols, singularly or in combination, to enable applications, or the like, running of various devices to share contextual, application-specific and generic system information, such as location, motion, connection status, battery level, radio signal strength, inputted events, etc.
2. Relevant Background
Advances in technology have resulted in smaller and more powerful personal computing devices. For example, there currently exist a variety of portable personal computing devices, including wireless computing devices, such as portable wireless telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and paging devices that are each small, lightweight, and can be easily carried by users. More specifically, the portable wireless telephones, for example, further include cellular telephones that communicate voice and data packets over wireless networks. Further, many such cellular telephones are being manufactured with relatively large increases in computing capabilities, and as such, are becoming tantamount to small personal computers and hand-held PDAs.
Still further, users of such device are interested in using the device to access: other devices, web based content, services, etc. Currently, devices may communicate through limited peer-to-peer connections, where such connections are limited by connection technology and rigid connection protocols. For example, current technologies such as Bluetooth, WiFi, etc., provide little support for application developers looking to enable peer-to-peer (P2P) communication between applications running on different devices (e.g., handsets, laptops, desktops, etc.) and/or different operating systems. Further, currently mobile platforms may not expose APIs that provide application developers with support to develop the above mentioned P2P applications, and some platforms that do expose APIs often are available to only those developers with extensive expertise and knowledge of any underlying networks and protocols.
Thus, improved apparatus and methods for providing cross-platform, language independent solutions for enabling ad hoc P2P communication between applications without extensive expertise and knowledge of underlying networks and protocols are desired.